


Children of Men

by Sharyrazade



Series: Children of Men - Fallen PT AU [1]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexual Male Character, Canon Compliant, Character Development, Cynicism, Deal with a Devil, Decadence, F/M, Fallen Heroes, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Pregnancy, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Loving Marriage, Married Couple, Non-Explicit Sex, Post-Canon, Power Dynamics, Worldbuilding, Yaldy's just mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-09 03:20:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharyrazade/pseuds/Sharyrazade
Summary: "You truly are a child of man... It seems you couldn't win against your own desires. There is no need to be ashamed. I shall grant you that wish..."An intimate glimpse into the lives of two of the original Phantom Thieves a decade after the incident with Mementos and its master.





	Children of Men

**Author's Note:**

> Like much of the rest of the internet, I too, am in Persona hell as well, so here's (one of) the results of my stay there.  
> BTW, this most certainly is NOT a childless dystopia; it was a reference to the quote above and I didn't even notice it until this concept was settled in my mind.

Fuck, whether in body or soul, this woman was so beautiful, thought Akira Kusuru, his beloved wife having the time of her life riding him like a raging bull's back. And why shouldn't she be? He was not exactly hideous himself, neither was their penthouse, the extremely-expensive art decorating it, nor was how accomplished these two utter outcasts, almost entirely written off by society, had become in such a short amount of time. Of course, they'd had more than a bit of help from friends (perhaps not the right word to describe it, really) in high places, but it made little difference in the long run.

The glamorous blonde whining in ecstasy as she neared her limit, Ann reflexively linked her husband's fingers in hers as she came, throwing her head back as Akira (rather redundantly by this point) finished inside of her, sliding off of him and nestling herself in his embrace. "Oh, Akira, you wild man!" she giggled, tracing circles around his heart. "When I said making love on a bed of money would be awesome, I never expected you to actually go for it!"

The trickster placed a kiss on his bride's forehead. "What can I say? What my queen wants, my queen gets. It's just that simple."

Amidst the afterglow, Ann had little trouble nodding off; after all, the couple always managed to get quite the workout from one another and Ann enjoyed her post-coital napping a good deal.  Hell, so did he for that matter, but tonight, Akira, for whatever reason, amidst the very peculiar solitude of his wife's dainty snoring and the distant din of the assorted noises of the city, felt the pull of the television and its reliable, familiar background noise. Pressing a button on the remote control, the display, easily three meters wide and just as high, steadily lowered itself from its resting place, switching it on, yet mindful of the dozing beauty next to him, kept the volume and brightness down considerably, noticing a suave, very familiar voice.

 _"Well, unlike some hacks, I take great care in composing my work with my own hand."_ remarked its owner, sweeping the bangs from his eye with a flourish of his neck.  _"Of course, this portrait would not have been possible without my muse, my Venus, so to speak."_

 _"And yes, this Kitagawa original has been autographed by the master himself!"_ gushed the presenter, her co-host admiring the work as well.  _"You can literally count the number of these left in the world on one hand!"_

Akira smirked nostalgically as he switched the channel.  _"Police are still investigating the exact cause of the accident, but preliminary reports suggest an AI malfunction in the truck's system is to blame."_ droned the newscaster.  _"In international news, Prime Minister Shido has been warmly and personally received in Washington by US President Armstrong-"_

"Akirraaaaaa..." Ann moaned, turning away from the artificial light and sound. "Turn that crap off! What's so interesting about it, anyway?!"

Switching off the television, Akira placed the remote control on the nightstand. "It's nothing really." he insisted innocently. "I just happened to hear something about Yusuke and Futaba. It's nice to see those two doing so well after everything they've gone through."

Turning to face him, Ann returned her husband's smirk, one more of uncharacteristic malice than mischief. "I think we've all done pretty well for ourselves since then; even Ryuji!" 

Looking back on it, Akira could not help but look down with pity on the true form of the Velvet Room's attendant. What was really the problem? They were still punishing the true scum of society and giving the people what they wanted. What could be the harm in that? And if they, as the Phantom Thieves, gained from it in the process, then so what? As far as he was concerned, the only ones who stood to lose from this arrangement were those who _deserved_ to lose.

Of course, he did not become so jaded overnight. A particularly disgusting individual with a particularly disgusting palace here, a well-known figure managing to remain beloved despite years and decades of horrific crimes there, and human nature being what it was, all gradually took their toll on his youthful optimism. Naturally, his particular brand of charisma and tact made him savvy enough not to divulge this change of heart, as it were, all at once, dropping hints here and there about his actual thoughts on how best to use their Metaverse abilities and enduring captivity of the public imagination.

Unsurprisingly, the first to come around to his way of thinking was Ryuji; while a vengeful hothead eternally perturbed with society, his unwavering conviction in the righteousness of their cause and loyalty to Akira surpassed only by Ann all made him the perfect candidate to take that first figurative plunge. Contrary to Morgana's ribbing, the past several years, he'd actually taken the initiative and proposed a number of innovative ideas: Receiving one of the group's trademark calling cards with the opposing side blank save for an offense and a skull and crossbones (or death's head, if you prefer) above it, served as an offender's first and last warning. Most would get the message by the time it would escalate to that point and if not- Well, sudden heart attacks were far from the only untimely deaths possible for the victim of a mental shutdown to suffer, as demonstrated quite handily by he and his computer-savvy partner in crime.

The next candidate to be swayed, Futaba, while not especially obvious, was unsurprising when one looked into her skill set and past. Truly her mother's daughter, her fascination with cognitive psience only deepened with time, becoming even more essential to their operations, her personally-developed series of drones particularly so. However, while perhaps not to the degree of Ryuji, her vengeful streak in punishing the collaborators with her mother's assassins (she and Ryuji however, were of the same mind at their truce with a certain spectacled, clean-shaven one, but ultimately dropped the matter) proved most fruitful; an incident of cardiac arrest suffered by a candidate for the PSIA's director-general here, a candidate for the Minister of Defence dropping dead of a cerebral hemorrhage there and her becoming one of the country's foremost AI researchers, all proved extremely helpful in their continued conquest of the Metaverse. Besides, with the country undergoing so much automation, the genius (to say nothing of the thieves' intrepid leader at her urging) was becoming more and more fascinated by the possibilities provided by artificial intelligence and the manipulation thereof.

His cool exterior notwithstanding, his close friends knew Yusuke Kitagawa to be an exceptionally passionate, ultimately-kind man. Indeed, the particular hard-edged natures of Ryuji and Futaba, as well as Joker's growing cynicism had begun to trouble him. That is, until a specific incident involving the palace of a longtime, well-beloved children's show host several years prior. The cognitive world created by the man's heart just as wicked and hideous as his lusts shook the artist to his very core. No longer convinced that his mission to fill the world with artistic beauty was sufficient given the sheer depravity the human soul was capable of, he confided in Akira that he agreed with him fully; the only way for beauty to escape obscurity was to purge as much wickedness in human hearts as reasonably possible.

Ann, knowing the thieves' leader better than any of them, was troubled as well by his shift in attitude, but did not ultimately pursue it. However, she could not help but find herself becoming more and more swayed by her beloved's segmented arguments. However, the aforementioned incident, that their ultimate target was found not guilty after a widely-publicized trial for sexual abuse of minors extending back decades, and the fact that his palace made that of Kamoshida look like a convent by comparison, was the absolute last straw for her. In the Metaverse, what exactly are the results of shoving a Thompson in the mouth of a defeated shadow and pulling the trigger? Much like in the real world- very, very messy.

Gentle and sheltered, Haru, in between overseeing her late father's corporation, found herself becoming increasingly concerned with the ruthlessness either shown by or assented to by her fellow thieves. But her unsuccessful efforts at preventing Okumura Foods from descending into a series of warring, _de facto_ fiefdoms lorded over by assorted executives, sometimes becoming harsher in conduct than what she protested against her father for ultimately proved for naught. Whether out of despair, impotence, guilt, or a combination of the three, Haru came to her absolute breaking point at several of these fiefdoms becoming involved in child labor scandals in Indonesia and the Philippines. It seemed the human heart was weighted towards some extremes after all, she told herself sadly. But this was not without its benefits. After all, a psychotic breakdown triggered by her driving an axe head into his shadow's skull caused a senior member of the Burmese regime to spontaneously massacre his fellow members with a Kalashnikov before blowing himself up with a grenade saw the decapitation and collapse of one of the most odious governments in existence.

The absolute last holdout was perhaps as unsurprising as Ryuji being the first. While subtly and inexplicably colder to Ann after a certain incident a couple of years after the group's foundation, Makoto still intended to act as the voice of reason in most situations, pointing out instances where excessive force or coercion would be detrimental to the overall mission. Her snide, intelligence-and-or-fellatio-related comments directed at the blonde now and again notwithstanding, she too, became more and more troubled by Akira's gradual change, even more so by the fact that his arguments seemed to be swaying the rest of the group, leaving her, once again, in a distinct, isolated minority of one. Burying herself in her university studies, Makoto could still not bear to bring herself alienate (let alone part with) the group that had given her the closest thing to a sense of belonging she'd ever felt, subtly airing her complaints and concerns with the others, especially Ryuji and Futaba, through cryptic allusions and insinuations.

That is of course, until a certain mass-casualty terrorist incident on the subway three years prior. A terrorist incident in which Sae had only managed to avoid death or severe injury by returning home for her forgotten laptop. This one event, along with the utter incompetence and face-saving shown by her superiors saw the end of that last psychological wall among the young idealists. After all, if the Metaverse and a person's shadow could be used for acts of terrorism and outright murder, Makoto began to see using both to extract confessions and relevant information as a few steps down in intensity.

Rolling to his side amidst the paper money on their marital bed, Akira found himself once more facing his bride, she wearing that carefree smile that had first captured his heart all those years ago. "He's going to have interesting stories to tell his peers, huh?" he asked dreamily, gently rubbing his wife's abdomen.

Ann giggled girlishly. "Or she." the blonde reminded, her tone matching that of her husband. "A world-famous model and the country's foremost security consultant? I guess we can always be sure of our place as the cool parents!"

"Besides, how many kids get to have real-life superheroes for parents?"

"We could even be a cult classic, 3D animated film someday!"

 

Dozing off in each others embrace, a few hours later, around three that morning ironically, one half of the couple was awakened by a very familiar buzzing from his phone.

-  _"Yo, what's up"_ Akira replied, typing out a mindless response.

 _\- "'Sup, Akira!"_ came the reply.  _"I've just got SOOOOOO much energy, I don't know what to do with it! God, I fucking love being human!"_

The thieves' leader chuckled nostalgically. His very first non-Ryuji ally and the...being essential to their organization getting off the ground, Morgana had taken enthusiastically to his new hominid form, from the good, the bad, and the just plain awkward and-or-tense, such as being Makoto's date for the wedding. 

 _\- "I know, I know you do buddy and I'm happy for you, I really am."_ came Akira's more-thoughtful response.  _"But, Mo, you've really got to take it easy on the hookers and blow."_

_\- "And speaking of energy, what are you still doing up at this hour? You should really get some sleep-"_

Abruptly and unceremoniously, Akira deleted the message, turned off the phone, and, interestingly enough, went back to bed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Now that I think about it, I actually once wrote this exact same fic for the Fire Emblem Awakening fandom, it was just a lot more sapphic and power-hungry.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Phantom Duets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16214804) by [Sharyrazade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharyrazade/pseuds/Sharyrazade)




End file.
